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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23099128">with antlers on</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CampionSayn/pseuds/CampionSayn'>CampionSayn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Little Less Blood [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>But don't tell anyone, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I don't make OCs but I DO borrow pre-existing characters nobody cares about, Joan's family are totally badass, spot the crossover(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:14:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,090</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23099128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CampionSayn/pseuds/CampionSayn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As Tori Amos said it, “Most people would rather be sheep than stand on their own with their antlers on.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joan Leland &amp; Harley Quinzel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Little Less Blood [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/699174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>with antlers on</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sometimes, she thinks it would have been better to grow old in the town she was raised, get married, start a family; like her parents and grandparents and millions of family members before her.<br/>
<br/>
Sometimes she gets so tired from trying to find some way into understanding her patients, it takes everything she has just to get up in the morning and face the inevitability of experiencing the insanity of doing the same things over again and hoping for new results.<br/>
<br/>
Sometimes she calls in sick, claiming food poisoning, lying, and just sits in her apartment or wanders around downtown, trying not to think; shut herself off from the 'could be' and 'should be' of the future riding down and away from the past that torched all the bridges in its wake.<br/>
<br/>
Joan walks the alleyways she never did before, observing traces left behind that people tried to be rid of after fire, flood, attack or breakdown, wondering about other places she had been.<br/>
<br/>
Sometimes she looked at herself in the mirror and counted all the things that had changed in and about her since she'd walked into Arkham.<br/>
<br/>
But she <em>chose</em> Gotham and did not regret.<br/>
<br/>
Her closest cousin, Patty, lived in NYC and hunted ghosts for the mayor with what her coworkers had proclaimed to be lesbian life partners in jest, but with a damn site more accuracy than her parents assumed were “just good friends” without irony.<br/>
<br/>
Her closest uncle, Will, also lived in New York, but in a suburb with trees and rivers, and had taken it upon himself to consult for the department he used to work for while also tending to a partner he’d had for but a week that lost everything in a single moment to a serial killer. <em>(A little part of her grinned at his honor in taking David in so he wouldn't be left to self-damnation. Regardless of how obviously the man was so Midwest she had to resist the temptation to throttle him every time he made an internalized homophobic joke on their living situation. Her uncle was a goddamn saint, she'd swear it.)</em><br/>
<br/>
Her second closest cousin lived all over the US, but preferred New York proper, being involved with the government in what she could only assume were both cover-ups and protection of things beyond the human ken. Assume being synonymous with knowing absolutely, because it wasn't as if Kay had the ability to be subtle.<br/>
<br/>
Her two other closest cousins, though she hadn’t seen them for a time, lived in Manhattan of all places; one in with the police force despite having all the credentials for being a psychologist, who ran about with literal creatures of the night; one who had <em>become</em> a creature of the night. And the underground... <em>(She'd have to remember to call cousin Beth about them; she was the youngest of that family that wandered around after college, but she was good at relaying messages if Joan bribed her enough.)</em><br/>
<br/>
Then there were the cousins and uncles in Chicago, who she didn’t really get along with, despite their pleasant nature. Also cops.<br/>
<br/>
The relatives in Nevada, Miami, California, Washington…almost all of them in law enforcement and doctors of the body.<br/>
<br/>
<em>(Honestly, it was a bit of a <strong>joke</strong> that her family had a theme going for all of them and they still gave <strong>her</strong> attitude. She'd rather be weird than predictable, thanks much.)</em><br/>
<br/>
Joan sighed often and long at being the only one of her family to step foot in Gotham, New Jersey; but despite all the grief her family and parents gave her for it in the long run, she was all the happier to be the black sheep, than be among the throng.<br/>
<br/>
As Tori Amos said it, “Most people would rather be sheep than stand on their own with their antlers on.”<br/>
<br/>
Though, if Joan was honest, she had to grow a thick skin before even entertaining the thought of antlers.<br/>
<br/>
The antlers came when Harley healed.<br/>
<br/>
As much as she ever <em>would</em> heal, at least...<br/>
<br/>
She shook her head and ducked behind a set of tables in the Iceberg, nudging Hiro under the linen fine and scowling over her shoulder as her blonde (favorite) colleague continued to drip blood on the floor while reloading a gun she'd had to take off a guard before shots had rang out.<br/>
<br/>
"Was that a through and through, or are there bullets inside you right now?"<br/>
<br/>
Harley barely registered the shots she had to fire blind overhead as she tucked a hand under her coat, seemed to wiggle her fingers around, and grimaced a bit along with a slippery sound Joan probably shouldn't have been as familiar with as she had become.<br/>
<br/>
"One went through, but one's in my shoulder," she confirmed, hand still under her coat and nails probably digging into open flesh, "I don't think it's a hollow point, though."<br/>
<br/>
"Small blessings; now stop touching it. Do you want to get another infection?"<br/>
<br/>
She literally had to smack Harley on the wrist as she tried to go further in, rather than pulling out. Which would have been more amusing if she didn't physically cringe when Harley brought her hand back out with blood and gore decorating her fingers like some sick parody of a kid getting into a cherry pie.<br/>
<br/>
The woman actually had to gall to whine a little as she returned to her position, aiming at a ceiling ornament and shooting true; the statuette of two swans landing painfully atop a pair of glaringly obvious henchmen that had been shooting at them while their boss--whoever that might have been--was <em>doubtlessly</em> harassing Oswald.<br/>
<br/>
"It <em>itches</em>."<br/>
<br/>
Joan loaded the next round of weapons for the slightly-better-than-a-borderline-sociopath. A smoothness in her motions she didn't even register, but had become second-nature in themselves, "And your pain tolerance is ten out of ten, so itching is better than you accidentally reactivating your nerve endings and going into shock."<br/>
<br/>
"She's right, you know," Hiro chimed in, slipping a shotgun out from under the table with Becky's assistance. Kate following after it and loading it with rounds.<br/>
<br/>
"Shut up, Hiro," echoed from all of them, a truly ringing endorsement of really just how much time they'd been spending together.<br/>
<br/>
If her parents could see Joan now, they'd be horrified, but she rather liked bringing a little of the Gotham out in herself as time progressed.<br/>
<br/>
The next family reunion was going to be a lot more fun if she had any say.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you're wondering why I'm a filthy liar about promising more length to this piece after the last prompt, blame the current happenings in the world and my job which has actually doubled my hours rather than shortening them. I just wanted to finish the prompts so I can move onto the next ones.</p>
<p>Can you blame me?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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